On Ringo Lake & Autumn Jubilee

Do you follow Bonnie Hunter of the Quiltville Blog? Every year on the Friday after Thanksgiving she begins a mystery quilt-a-long and this year's is titled On Ringo Lake. Clue #1 came out last Friday and I've decided to give it a shot. For the last couple of years I've watched others make her scrappy-style mystery quilts and I've wished I'd joined along. This year I'm going to sew with the Quiltville group but I'm only going to do a few of the weekly blocks until I see how the pattern turns out. If I like it, I'll finish it 100% of the way it was meant to be. If I decide it's not quite my style, I'll piece together what I've got and see what else I come up with. Sounds like a good plan, right?

Clue #1 was to make 9-patches. Bonnie is using colors inspired  by her photo of Ringo Lake. Here is her button so you can get an idea of her color palette. To see everyone's progress, click HERE for the Monday Link-up.

I'll be using slightly different colors. Her chocolate browns will also be my chocolate browns. (Yum! I love chocolate!) Her turquoise will be my green and her melon will be my purple. These are my blocks for this week. Nothing too spectacular to look at so far but it is progress!

On another front, I have been making headway on my Autumn Jubilee lap quilt. This quilt-a-long was generously hosted by Carole from From My Carolina Home Blog. Not only did she post directions for this quilt in 3 sizes, but there was also a tablet cover and a wool candle mat you could make. Again a very generous gift from yet another sweet blogger. I believe I've shared her information here before but here's another plug because it's so worth it! Click HERE to check out EVERYTHING she offers -- gardening, cooking, card making, traveling, and (of course) quilting.

Here are a couple pictures of my blocks. When I laid them out on the floor, they became "Polly Approved"!

My guild, Hearts 'n' Hands, offers quite a few charity opportunities. One of them that I enjoy contributing to is the Linus Project, quilts for children in need. The part I enjoy is quilting the top that someone else made. I do this on my domestic machine, apply the label, and sew down the binding. I try to do two each year but I do believe this is the first one for 2017. I'll have to make    up for that in 2018!

Here are a couple of pictures of the quilt I'm finishing up. First the front. I chose this top to quilt because it looked to me like a little boy's quilt. They seem to be made less often than little girl quilts. Probably because we like to make the "pretty" ones.

Since we recently enjoyed Thanksgiving, I would be remiss if I didn't mention two of the people I'm most thankful for. That's my husband who tolerates my quirkiness and my occasional OCD behavior. Sitting at the table with him is my mother, 84 years young and still enjoying life and can still smile when I lash out at whoever gets in my way when frustrated. A not-so-nice side of me, for sure ... 

I'll close off this post with a picture of Gracie. After all, Polly was mentioned earlier in the post and we need to keep things even, not to mention I'm thankful for her too. She's my walking buddy! Look at that face -- what a sweet girl, resting her big, old mug on my leg!

Hope you're having a great week! Until next time, let's sew!